Arkansas Tech University’s (ATU) Office of Public Safety is gearing up for a new school year, with new programs ready to be implemented and officers more ready than ever to protect students after receiving additional training over the summer.

Josh McMillian, police chief, said his department will implement several programs this year, including a new bicycle registration program and Operation ID, a theft-prevention program that allows students to submit serial numbers of their property into a database to better the chances of the items being recovered in the event of a theft.

“It’s in the first steps right now, but students, faculty and staff can log in and they’ll be able to list all the property they have by their serial numbers,” McMillian said. “That way, in the event that it is stolen, it gives us the information needed to recover it.”

McMillian said the department will also implement campus watch programs in the university’s dorm halls; host a public safety academy with resident advisors and directors; and a “Tech Guardian” program, a nighttime service that will offer transport to anywhere on campus by one of the department’s student workers in the cadet program.

But most of all, McMillian said he wants the officers’ presence to be known and for students, faculty and staff to know they’re there to educate and protect them.

“We’re strong believers in an officer presence on campus. We’re all about building relationships,” McMillian said. “It’s through these relationships that we’ll keep Tech the safe university that it is.”

Last year, the university made strides in public safety through landscaping efforts, such as trimming shrubbery and bushes, and through the installation of numerous new lights, cameras and emergency call stations. Between June 2011-May 2012, 215 incidents were reported, 105 of which involved thefts. Twenty-two arrests were made, the most of which being for public intoxication, for which seven were arrested.

“The bottom line is we want the students, faculty and staff to know we’re here to serve them.”

While McMillian acknowledged no department could ever be ready for a shooter on campus, ATU, along with the Russellville Police Department (RPD), Dardanelle Police Department, Dover Marshal’s Office, Pope County Sheriff’s Office, Morrilton Police Department, Arkansas State Police and probation and parole are better prepared for an active-shooter situation after participating in the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) earlier this summer.

The training, which during the summer was broken down into two levels, gave officers the chance to storm the halls of Russellville Middle School in search of a gun-wielding madman, while tending to the wounded.

“Level One focuses on the first responder’s response tactically,” said McMillian, who is certified to instruct the ALERRT courses. “Level Two adds a medical aspect to it, because what we’re learning through Iraq and Afghanistan and all these deployments overseas is that medical personnel will respond, but they can’t necessarily enter the building until it’s secure, but it’s not secure until the threat’s taken care of.

“If you have 25 officers in a building that have taken care of a threat, several of those officers could actually render first aid and by rendering that basic first aid they learn in the Level Two class, they can save lives, they make it a safer place and they can get those people the attention they need in a much more rapid fashion.”

RPD Public Information Officer Drew Latch added while Level One focuses more on the apprehension of a suspect, Level Two targets the same tactical efforts to apprehend the suspect while focusing efforts to save others’ lives by building communication pathways that will clear the area for victims.

“There are certain injuries that if not treated immediately, somebody will die. But in this class, we were able to learn different techniques to where we could actually do certain things to keep people from bleeding out, or respond to certain wounds that could save somebody’s life.”

Latch and McMillian said the training also serves to create unity among the different law agencies, as they’ll be the initial response teams to an active shooter situation. While a SWAT team could take up to 45 minutes to arrive, McMillian said, local police forces are on-scene within minutes.

McMillian, who will enter his first full academic year with the university as chief after being hired in March, said his plans are to make the Office of Public Safety among the best in the country.

“I think anything less, you’re selling yourself short,” he said. “I’m confident in the ability of the people who work here to protect the university and I feel like when the time comes, we’ll rise and we’ll do what we’re supposed to.”